Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 25: All Jammu Hotels & Lodges Association has demanded ‘Smart City’ in Jammu as the city fulfills all the requirements put forth in the yardstick proposed by the Central Government.
Speaking to the members in a meeting of the Association, AJHLA president Inderjeet Khajuria expressed his annoyance over the way the State and the Central Government were treating Jammu in all the spheres of development including tourism. “Every dignitary including PM Narendra Modi during his visit to Katra, had assured Jammuites that their apprehended sufferings of economic fallout due to the rail link extension shall be properly looked after, compensated and Jammu at no cost shall be allowed to become Pathankot so far the traders interests are concerned. Unfortunately the traders woes have increased manifold as none of the development projects which were in pipeline have been completed so far due to non-serious callous attitude of the Government,” he alleged.
Blaming all the previous Governments for their utter failure of making Jammu as independent tourist destination, Mr Khajuria said that Jammu suffered due to total neglect by the Kashmiri centric Government as focus has always remained on promotion of tourism in Valley. “The Government is spending crores of rupees for promotion of tourism in Kashmir at the cost of Jammu including development of water bodies in Kashmir, whereas same are ignored in Jammu,” he said.
Justifying the demand of ‘Smart City’ for Jammu, Mr Khajuria said that it would be in the fitness of things if Jammu is granted the status of smart city as is being granted to the cities of other States by the Government of India. He said that the Jammu province always suffered total neglect and it is the right time to undo the injustice by granting it a ‘Smart City’ status.
Others who were present in the meeting included Pawan Gupta, Baldev Raj, HS Manhas, Bikram Singh, Sunil Suri and M L Sharma.
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